The Beginning of Wisdom: A Companion to the Book of Genesis [Hardcover]

Leon Kass, the well-known philosopher/ethicist, has written a tour de force in this huge book. What Kass has undertaken in this work is to review every passage, indeed every word of the Book of Genesis from a philosophical perspective rather than a purely religious viewpoint. In doing so he helps make the book accessible not just to those outside of the Jewish or Christian tradition but to those within religious movements who reject the fundamentalist explanations of the traditionalists.

As a starting point, I would add that Kass does examine the text more from a Jewish perspective than a Christian one. While his English translations are from the King James Bible, he often examines the original Hebrew that appears in the Torah in order to glean a greater understanding of the words of the text. He also frequently cites Jewish theologians and scholars, either to lend credence to his arguments or to offer counter-arguments.

To Kass, Genesis presents an enormous wealth of material on the development of human ethics, morality and higher intellectual development. Because this is a work on the philosophical meaning of Genesis, Kass skirts the arguments as to the bible's historical accuracy. For purposes of his arguments, he treats the stories and characters as real and brings them to life in ways the text does not. The Rabbis of the Midrash do this as well but they are constrained by the need to fit the text into pre-existing notions. For example, because Jacob is considered a great figure in Jewish history, the Rabbis are constrained to find justifications for his seemingly bad actions. Kass has no such limitations. As a result, the characters are brought to life as living breathing human beings, warts and all.

The overriding theme of Genesis, according to Kass, is the effort of God to create a human society that will practice both justice and mercy and walk in His footsteps. As God seems to fail in this endeavor twice (with pre-flood humanity and with the re-constituted humanity after the flood) he decides to make Himself available to one special people, the Israelites, to be descended from one single man, Abraham. Once we are introduced to Abraham and witness the miraculous birth of his son Isaac, Kass argues that the remainder of the book is the story of the preservation of the "new way" in this one family and soon tribe. Along the way are stories of intense human drama and pathos.

Always using the text as his starting point, Kass shows how some of our pre-conceived ideas about the great biblical figures may not be supportable. One of the clearest examples of this comes in the story of Joseph. Tradition portrays Joseph as not only talented and brilliant but as the most righteous of men. Kass shows, through examination of the text, that Joseph is not a purveyor of the "new way" but instead is a man of Egypt. Kass shows how Joseph's actions from youth to old age render him inappropriate as the future leader of Israel, a new nation created to spread the ways of the Lord to the world. Instead, it is Judah who emerges as the ultimate leader.

The book is filled with gems of wisdom gleaned purely from the text. It is lively and fascinating and always reverent. While one may not agree with each conclusion Kass reaches, his arguments are fascinating. Any open minded person will find this book a great read.

After two decades of studying the Bible and consulting books about the Bible, I can honestly say that I have never read anything as lucid, informative, thorough, illuminating, and critically relevant as Kass's book on Genesis.
It is unlike any other commentary I am aware of, in that, rather than being set up as a standard verse-by-verse exposition, it follows the ideas and the storyline of Genesis in a coherent, chronological format. Nothing is omitted from discussion, or avoided, every verse is treated, but always in a way that lends itself to a greater understanding of the integrated whole of Genesis. Kass's expert interaction with the text is a result of his twenty years of teaching a seminar on Genesis, and his commitment to the premise that "to discover the meaning, a text must be studied in its own terms." (p.14).
What we need is "a disinterested and philosophic pursuit of the truth" (p.2). By disinterested Kass means a pursuit without an agenda, without a bias (without prior assumptions, religious or otherwise) and by philosophic, simply "wisdom-seeking". And by truth, well, to me that is one of the great things about the book... the author believes that there IS such a thing as truth, and wisdom, for that matter. A seemingly rare position to hold, among today's modern academia.
He says that there are three methodological assumptions on how to read Genesis. The first is to read thoroughly skeptically, in which case the reader would most likely want to quit reading after just a few pages. Secondly, entirely by faith, by which the reader already believes everything even prior to reading the first few pages. Thirdly, the way of "thoughtful engagement", by which the reader suspends his/her disbelief and has an earnest desire to simply let the text speak for itself. Much as we would do with other literary works, even novels. This third method is the one Kass advocates as being his own, and encourages all readers to adopt.
In doing so, he presents an assessment of Genesis that is quite different from what I may have heard in my own seminary education, but it is one that I regret not having adopted sooner.
For I have learned more in reading this book, than in all of my previous years of formal instruction.
As another reviewer has pointed out, here we see the biblical characters as they really were... not just Bible Superheros, not infallible demi-gods (as they are often portrayed) but as real live people who made as many bad judgements as good, and were not always as pious or Godly as we readily assume.
Aside from all of this, the book is readable. By that, I mean, it is not pedantically smudgy nor needlessly polysyllabic. It is clear, it is so wonderfully readable and clear-headed, and laced with footnotes, often describing how the source of his findings came not from himself, but from his students and colleages.
He states his purpose clearly. "First, to demonstrate by example a wisdom-seeking approach to the Bible that attempts to understand the text in its own terms yet tries to show how such an understanding may address us in our current situation of moral and spiritual neediness. Second, to recover in their full power the stories of Genesis as tales to live with, as stories illuminating some of the most important and enduring questions of human existence. Third, to make at least plausible the power of the Biblical approach and response to these questions, with its emphasis on righteousness, holiness, and reverence for the divine." (p.13).
Does the book succeed, regarding these goals?
Yes.
Is there a better book on understanding Genesis available today?
No.
Could this book in itself be any better than it is?
No.

The Beginning of Wisdom is a wondrous product resulting from many years of teaching and reflection on the book of Genesis by biochemist and ethicist, Leon Kass. This book makes Genesis accessible for those who perhaps depend too greatly on rationalization and struggle with faith. Rather than using theological or literary approaches, Kass extracts meaning from the Bible with a philosophical and wisdom seeking spirit. The resulting work is an enjoyable feast of a multitude of insights about human nature, marriage, families, politics, etc.

`The Beginning of Wisdom' is broken into two parts. The first part is more abstract and metaphorical since it focuses on stories from the Garden of Eden to the Tower of Babel. The tone of the second part, which focuses on Abraham and his descendents, is more explanatory and reads like play-by-play commentary.

When it comes to Biblical exegesis a reader should always be skeptical of one persons interpretation especially if they're unfamiliar with their work. Fortunately I found Kass' conclusions well reasoned, albeit a little verbose. With some editing the book could've been cut down to 500 or even 400 pages but Kass' detailed analysis and conversational tone compels the reader to commit through his 700pg text. Rarely does Kass make wild extrapolations never deviating from what is explicitly stated in the Bible. If he does, he admits as he did when he tried to draw connections between the creation story and Darwinism, but what would you expect from a biochemist?

On a side note, one of the downsides of the growing secularization of society is that many discard the Bible as a sexist relic of ancient superstition. As Kass reinforces with his book, nothing can be further from the truth. Even for the atheist with an open mind, the Bible can serve as tremendously rich source of wisdom that can teach us about who we are as self-conscious creatures struggling to make sense out of our existence.

This book is highly recommended.